A Few Words About Copyright

By Joe Waz
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Mar 26, 2009

Over the last couple of days there has been some confusion about what Comcast does when copyright owners allege infringements on our network. I thought that, since we have this new blog, I’d use this opportunity to set the record straight.

We have supported content owners voluntarily for many years and complied with the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) by forwarding notices of alleged copyright infringement that we receive from music, movie, video game and publishing companies to consumers. We have an automated system that currently forwards between 1 to 2 million notices each year to customers’ email addresses. (By the way, this is the same process we’ve had in place for years - nothing has changed.) Many other ISPs also forward notices - some like us use automation, others do it manually.

Since some of the reporting on a panel appearance I made in Nashville this week incorrectly suggests that "three strikes" policies like some countries in Europe have adopted are being contemplated, I think it’s important to make this point: no American ISP (including Comcast) that I know of is talking about a so-called "three strikes and you’re out" law or process. While we have always supported copyright holders in their efforts to reduce piracy under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), and continue to do so, we have no plans to test or implement a so-called "three strikes and you’re out" policy.

What I did say in Nashville is that we’ve had conversations with associations representing the various content industries about what else we might do - cooperatively and voluntarily - to deter infringement, educate consumers about copyright, and point them toward legitimate sources of the content they want. This is important and we all need to work together to come up with a solution — all the major ISPs and all the major content industries that are subject to piracy - music, movies, video games, and software. We are still working on ideas in these industry conversations, and we intend to approach them thoughtfully and carefully.